Opinion: Baseball playoffs capturing consideration with TV rankings however nonetheless cannot contact the NFL when it comes to recognition.
Bulls of the week
It’s at all times simpler to piggyback on a number of of the large three media markets within the U.S. (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), however Main League Baseball continues to be in fine condition TV-wise even with out the New York Yankees and the Mets, the L.A. Dodgers and the Angels, and the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox.
The League Championship Collection contain three of the highest seven American TV markets and 4 of the highest 11 (fourth, Philadelphia, fifth Dallas-Fort Value, seventh Houston and eleventh Phoenix.)
The Battle of Texas between the Rangers and the defending World Collection-champion Houston Astros might be notably attention-grabbing on the media and fan engagement fronts over the subsequent week or so.
In the meantime, it’s additionally been one other terrific week for the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s two undefeated groups going into Week 7. The 49ers used a powerful Sunday Evening Soccer win over their conventional rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, to maintain tempo with the Eagles, the NFC East group that’s off to its second consecutive sturdy begin to the common season. Each groups are 5-0.
The 49ers-Cowboys’ prime time affair on NBC was the most-watched Sunday Evening Soccer sport since 2006, which suggests it’s the largest NBC Sunday Evening Soccer viewers ever. It harnessed a complete of 26.3 million viewers, together with 24.3 million on linear TV and one other two million by streaming.
Honourable point out to Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks.
ESPN scored a file 1.43 million Individuals when it comes to common nationwide viewers for its season-opener and Bedard’s formal NHL debut, one which noticed him register an help in a 4-2 win on the street over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
His first professional regular-season aim got here the subsequent evening in a dropping trigger to the Boston Bruins, who have been celebrating their one centesimal anniversary season.
The media and fan response to Bedard — on either side of the border — solely reinforces his place because the NHL’s greatest rookie star since Connor McDavid in 2015.
Bears of the week
Even supposing there’s lots to work from in huge U.S. media markets corresponding to Philly, Houston and Dallas-Fort Value, there’s no query that it’s been a bearish week for the groups that led the MLB common season and dominated the field scores for a lot of the interval between April and October.
Houston is the one divisional winner to advance to the LCS, what with 5 regular-season leaders being swept to the wayside, together with the groups with the highest three information going into the post-season; the 100-win-plus Atlanta Braves, Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles.
There might be loads of hand-wringing on size of layoff to accommodate the wild-card spherical, however make no mistake, these upsets are a very good enterprise drawback to have with regards to maintaining as many markets in play as attainable.
It additionally continues to be an actual powerful scenario for Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos, who at the moment are limping alongside at 1-5 of their second consecutive abysmal NFL marketing campaign after a loss to Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes Jr. and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Thursday Evening Soccer.
The Taylor Swift issue was notably warmly welcomed by TNF rights-holder Amazon.
